


Pain Shared Between Two Souls

by barrybinary



Series: DC Tumblr Prompt Fills [7]
Category: DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Kiss, M/M, Mention of Temporary Character Death, Prompt Fill, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 07:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15262167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barrybinary/pseuds/barrybinary
Summary: Kyle's always felt pain.---"anonymous  asked:Hello are you still opening prompt? Can I have JayKyle soulmate sharing pain au? Only if you want to ofc :)"





	Pain Shared Between Two Souls

Kyle didn’t think it was normal to always be in pain, to always feel the pang of hunger in your stomach even after having eaten. 

Kyle had many memories of asking his mom what was going on, why did he hurt all the time? Why was he always hungry? Why did he feel unrelenting  _ sorrow  _ and  _ anger _ at every second of the day?

Maura would give him a sad look, smiling though the pain in her gaze was visible even to an eight year old. “It’s your soulmate. That means they’re hurting,” She said, tears visible in her eyes as she picked her child up. 

“Why is she always in pain?” Kyle asked, oblivious.

“Let’s not assume your soulmate’s gender, Kyle,” His mom said automatically, her response for whenever anyone gendered their soulmate before meeting them. She paused before continuing, sitting down with Kyle in her lap. “They probably don’t have someone to take good care of them, baby.”

Kyle’s brain thought of an obvious solution, “Can’t we take care of them?” 

“Kyle… We don’t know where they are. They could be across the country and we wouldn’t know. If I did know who they were, I’d take them in in a heartbeat.” As a single mother, she wouldn’t have the funds to take care of another little kid, but she wasn’t lying. She’d find a way.

Maura petted her son’s hair as he looked down at his lap, setting his head on her chest. “What can we do then?”

Wrapping her arms around her son and setting her head atop his, she said “We can make sure you never get hurt, make sure you’re fed. Basically, just make sure you don’t add any more pain to what they already experience.”

Kyle straightened up, looking as though he had a duty, which, Maura guessed, he kind of did now.

“I’m gonna make sure I never hurt him!” He said, with all the force a child his age could muster.

Maura squeezed her son further, burying her face in his hair, “You’re my little hero.”

—

The pain didn’t stop, only got worse. When Kyle was eleven he would feel the straining of muscles while he sat still, the forces of blows even when he was taking no damage. 

For two years, every night he got hurt. A pulled muscle or a punch, even the occasional gunshot wound. 

Then, when Kyle was thirteen, he had the most painful night of his life, before he felt his soul rip in two. 

— 

The cool surface of the table was comforting to Kyle in his sorrow. It wasn’t often he just let himself be  _ sad _ anymore, but on the anniversary of his mom’s death, anything goes. 

“She was so understanding. She helped me so much with my art and with my soulmate issues. Even when my soulmate…” He couldn’t bring himself to continue, “Even when that happened, she held me and made sure I was taken care of even though my stomach couldn’t hold anything.”

Jason made an uncomfortable noise, and Kyle was reminded that he was even  _ there. _ It’d been over a year since they worked together, Kyle now 23 and Jason 25, and Kyle was mourning over his mother’s death three as well as dealing with a dull, throbbing pain in his side that wasn’t his own. That wasn’t even  _ covering _ the burn in his pec, left by the Sinestro corps. That pain was  _ his _ , and he could tell. 

“Thank you for coming, I just needed company,” Kyle said softly — all of the Lanterns were away and Kyle wasn’t sure if he even wanted to spend time with them. John, Guy, and Hal weren’t very comforting people.

Not that Jason was particularly  _ comforting _ , but he could stay quiet as you vented, something not a lot of people he knew could do. 

And they’d been seeing each other a lot more; it seemed whenever he worked near Gotham — or just anywhere on the east coast  — Jason was there. 

Jason heaved a sigh, and Kyle looked to where he was twirling his beer in his bottle before taking a swig. “I know loss, too, Kyle. I’m not gonna leave you alone.”

That’s something Jason would have  _ never  _ said before, when it was both of them and Donna. Yet, now, after a year of consistently seeing the other at least once a month, Jason felt comfortable saying stuff like that to him.

Well, not comfortable if the look on his face was anything to go by, but  _ willing. _

Kyle moved back to resting his forehead on the cold table; he could use a drink, but all Jason had at his apartment was beer. “Kyle?” Jason said after a few moments of silence.

Kyle hummed in acknowledgement.

“Would you like to hear about my soulmate?” Jason said, instantly making Kyle shoot up in his seat. 

“You found them?” He asked with his eyebrows furrowed, probably a little too quickly and with slight jealousy tugging at his heartstrings.

Jason shook his head, “ _ Maybe _ not,” Kyle wanted to ask what he meant, but Jason continued, giving him no room to talk. “My soulmate never got hurt, never had any pain besides the occasional headache. I was almost convinced he didn’t exist.”

“Don’t assume the gender of your soulmate if you’ve never met them,” Kyle automatically interrupted, making Jason raise an eyebrow.

“It’d be a little fucked up if my soulmate were a girl, seeing as I’m  _ gay _ .” The tone he used made Kyle chuckle in embarrassment before giving him a signal to continue. “Then, a year or so after I was awake and had my mind back, I start to feel a regular pain. It was as though they were getting beaten, all the time.”

Jason paused, looking to Kyle to see if he had anything to say. “That was kind of how it always was, for me,” He said softly. “Always hungry, hurting,  _ sad. _ ”

Kyle looked down to avoid Jason’s searching eyes. That was the  _ one  _ thing scarier than anything Jason could do with his hands; his mind was a powerhouse, taking in details and making conclusions as fast as he could. Whenever he did that, Kyle was reminded this was the man who almost took down  _ Batman. _

After it was obvious Kyle wasn’t going to elaborate, Jason continued, “These were pains of  _ major _ wounds. I couldn’t have been making it up or hallucinating,” The look he gave Kyle was as though he were daring him to argue.

“Why are you here instead of out there?” Jason said, making Kyle frown with the sudden and random question.

“I was captured by the Sinestro corps, then...” He hadn’t told anyone who wasn’t a Green Lantern about it yet, but if Jason were willing to give up information about his  _ soulmate,  _ he could tell him this. “I was branded.” In a spur of the moment decision, Kyle reached up and pulled the collar of his simple white shirt down, where the brand was still new. He was supposed to be wearing dressings, but when he got home he’d pulled them off. “It’s the Sinestro corps symbol,” He added, a little unnecessarily, but he didn’t know what to do with Jason looking at him with pain and something  _ else  _ in his eyes. 

“I’m sorry to ask you this  _ today  _ of all days,” Jason said, and alarm bells went off in Kyle’s head because Jason  _ never  _ said sorry— “What happened to your soulmate that you can’t talk about?”

Kyle’s mind filled with static, remembering the numb and disconnected feeling he’d dealt with for half a year, “Why?” He near croaked out. He didn’t want to cry in front of  _ Jason Fucking Todd,  _ but it was going to be a close thing.

“Just tell me, okay?” And Kyle must be hallucinating, because did  _ Jason Todd — Red Hood —  _ just take his right hand in both of his? His gloves were gone, Kyle noticed; he only felt the callouses that came with years and years of hard work.

Kyle bent over in his seat, resting his head where their hands were joined. “I was just… sitting in my room one day, and then I feel this anguish, this  _ betrayal. _ The minute after that, I’m being beaten. I don’t even know what  _ with,  _ but it was worse than anything I’d ever felt from my soulmate.” Kyle felt Jason rest his head lightly atop his, working to confuse Kyle even more  _ and  _ offer more comfort. “It went on for so long, I think my mom heard me screaming and came to hold me but I don’t know. I never asked her, and I can’t remember.” Jason’s thumb rubbed soothing circles on the skin of his hand. “Then, it stopped, and I could finally breathe.” 

Kyle heard Jason open his mouth to say something, but he wouldn’t let him. “It stopped for a little bit, but then there was  _ heat,  _ heat everywhere and my eardrums were hurting for some reason and then my  _ everything  _ hurt because they were  _ gone. _ ” He paused, trying to catch his breath, not even noticing the tears running down his nose and onto his and Jason’s hands. “This sounds so stupid, and dramatic, but my soul split in two. I heard a lot of people die after the death of their soulmate, and I  _ believe  _ it. I felt like I…”  _ I felt like I should’ve,  _ he stopped himself from saying, but Jason tightened his grip on Kyle’s hands anyway. 

“You don’t have to say anymore.” Jason said.

Kyle wasn’t going to anyway, but he wasn’t going to say that. He felt embarrassed, gutted, and…  _ guilty? _ That wasn’t his emotion, but he felt it. He wondered what his soulmate was guilty about.

“Isn’t it terrible that we only feel the negative things from our soulmates?” He said softly, feeling Jason’s nod right after. 

“I heard when you bond, you can feel every emotion they have — not just the painful ones. I’m sorry you won’t get that.”

This bonding was so uncharacteristic of Jason, very different from the man he’d grown to know over the past year and a half. The caring Jason was showing… it made Kyle want to tell him more, made him want to give him  _ some _ comfort. 

He spoke in clipped sentences, wanting to get it out but not knowing how. “They came back, though. After about half a year. I felt pain again. Not my own.” He moved his head, making Jason sit up with him. He avoided eye contact, looking down at his lap and where their hands still lay. “They’re hurting right now, actually,” He rubbed at his side with his free hand.

Jason hummed, until he said “Kyle.” His tone of voice making him look up, and see the serious look Jason had in his face. “We’re soulmates.”

Kyle’s mouth opened to argue and yell about  _ how  _ he could joke about something so serious, before closing.

“You died ten years ago,” Kyle said, looking into Jason’s eyes, a ring of green around his blue eyes from the lazarus pit. It all made sense.

Jason was a street kid, always hungry and being hurt from the people who had nothing better to do than hurt a kid. The pain got more intense when at the time Jason became Robin, getting beat up and shot at by bad guys. And now…

“What happened to your ribs?” Kyle said, looking down where he knew there to be an injury on Jason.

Jason reeled back, a confused look on his face, “That’s all you have to say?” His hands let go of Kyle’s, taking off his jacket without hesitation. “Killer Croc fucking punched me full force in the ribs, none are broken, but they hurt.” Kyle wanted to say something along the lines of  _ Of course it hurts, I can feel it, _ but figured being sarcastic at a time like this would not be the best idea. Jason lifted his shirt up, showing the bruising standing out against his tan skin.

Kyle reached out, stopping when he felt a fear that wasn’t his own. “Sorry,” He put his hand back on his lap, still looking at the wound, letting worry flood through him.

“I can already feel more of your emotions,” Jason said, almost in wonder. Kyle nodded. Jason moved forward, getting on one knee in front of Kyle and looking into his eyes. “Soulmates are a very big deal, but I’m not about to do this  _ just  _ because of that.”

Before Kyle could reply, he was pulled forward by Jason’s hands until their lips collided, the contact making something explode within his chest. His feelings for Jason he’d pushed down allowed to bloom and flourish. Jason opened his mouth, trailing his tongue across Kyle’s lips and between them, massaging the top of his tongue before disconnecting their lips, a string of saliva connecting their lips momentarily.

“I’ve wanted that for awhile,” Kyle admitted softly, resting his forehead against Jason’s as they breathed each other’s air. 

He saw Jason smirk, “I can feel that.” 

Kyle paid more attention to the feelings in his chest, feeling fondness and adoration that wasn’t his own. He felt excitement, a longing for the future. Kyle felt that excitement as well. A year ago, he would have never expected Jason to feel anything but anger and a want for revenge. But now, feeling the neverending depth of Jason’s emotions, he knew he was  _ dead  _ wrong. 

He smiled wide, “I can feel you, too.”


End file.
